Legislature passes six-year Fort Ord Reuse Authority extension bill

The Fort Ord Reuse Authority will get an extra six years of life as regional overseer of renewal work on the former Army base under legislation that easily passed the Legislature on Wednesday.

The bill, AB 1614, by Assemblyman Bill Monning, D-Carmel, now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature, which Monning is confident will happen.

"I would expect the governor to sign, but we're not taking anything for granted," Monning said.

He said the bill had broad regional support from most member agencies, business groups and some environmental organizations.

"I still believe the regional authority is the most democratic way to navigate future land use at Fort Ord," Monning said.

Under its charter legislation, FORA was due to expire June 20, 2014. The agency has been in the spotlight in recent months as critics have questioned expenses, costs of ordnance removal and its public-records policies.

"I appreciate those concerns ... and I share some of those concerns," Monning said. But he said the best thing for local residents to do is "to engage their local board members to provide leadership."

The FORA voting board is made up of city and county representatives of areas affected by the Army's 1994 closure of Fort Ord.

"I think it serves all residents, with a better (model) than any other model of local governance," Monning said.

His bill originally would have reauthorized FORA for another decade, but a Senate committee amended that to six years. Monning said he agreed with the shorter time.

"It will focus on trying to reach the objectives of the base reuse plan in six years, rather than 10 years," he said. The shorter extension should provide focus and more incentive for the agency, he said.

The vote in the Assembly on Wednesday was 52-12 without debate.

Steve Endsley, FORA's assistant executive officer, said the agency was "very pleased" by the Legislature's action. He said FORA could live with the six-year extension rather than 10 more years.

"It's reasonable, and we embrace the changes that have been made," Endsley said. "It will give us renewed energy and purpose."

But Michael Salerno, spokesman for Keep Fort Ord Wild, one of a handful of groups that opposed the FORA extension, said, "We still oppose it ... and we're hoping Gov. Brown vetoes (the bill)."

Salerno, whose group has sued FORA over its choice of a consultant for a review of the base reuse plan and for records pertaining to the cleanup of old Army munitions, said the local jurisdictions could take over the work that FORA does and do it more economically.

He said the group added up FORA's total expenses from 18 years of annual reports and the total came to about $245 million.

"We don't feel that any Peninsula taxpayer has received any quantifiable benefit (from FORA)," he said. "It has become like this perpetual machine everyone accepts."